People quotation in China

[Pierre1961]

Have you heard about people in China will receive or loose points depending on how they behave.

if they are considered as a bad element: not allowed to travel,bad school for your children,no bank account......what else ? 

in order of checking all these people,millions of cameras 

No chance we could get new members from China ! 

I am happy to be old enough and have no real chance to be still alive in 30 years! 

Pierre 

[Shyheels]

It is not a nice age we live in...

[HappyinHeels]

You don't see much about this on the mainstream media since most of them are closet communists or close enough to it. China thrives as a communist state because it essentially cheated the system. It claimed communist ideals like the Soviet Union but developed the world's first communist political system and capitalist economic system hybrid. Whilst it makes everything and entrepreneurship is everywhere so is the totalitarian vice that has been the hallmark of every communist regime for 100 years. Why academia continues to support a system that has never functioned without repression is inexplicable to me. China's "Social Credit System" is a way of grading their citizens based upon their behaviour and whether it is positive or negative toward a better China in the government's view. Those who do well are rewarded and those who falter are "corrected". Falter enough and a lengthy prison system awaits. China executes more citizens in a week  than most other nations execute in a year but all one hears in the media is a chorus of crickets. They have long ignored intellectual property rights and pirated everything from handbags to music to clothes and electronics but most of the world turns a blind eye because China makes the world's widgets. The Chinese government  has treated women as second-class citizens for years yet the media focuses on every word the US President may have said about women. Remember, in communist societies it is not what the state can do for the individual it is what the individual can do for the state that matters. You will not read this in the Guardian or the Times of London or NYC because it is an inconvenient truth. It is a form of government by force whether that force is overt or very sublime. Never forget this when studying such countries. HinH 

[Shyheels]

Indeed. China is the elephant in the room nobody dares mention

[Pierre1961]

Totally agree!

Just: before you ask what your country can do for you,first ask yourself what you can do for your country! Wasn't it something a freshly elected American president said? 

Then: I have been to China several times: I could wear high heels without any trouble. Probably because I am a western guy. Good point for me  

And. People there seems to be happy with that mixes  messy everyday behavior and a strong " don't use your own brain for wondering about your life" .Does the use of mobile phone and social media24/24 help as a brain washing?

Pierre 

[RonC]

John F. Kennedy "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"

[p1ng74]

7 hours ago, Pierre1961 said:

Just: before you ask what your country can do for you,first ask yourself what you can do for your country! Wasn't it something a freshly elected American president said? 

But my public school teachers taught us that this is the most amazing thing a president has ever said... :p

I am wearing my 4.25” heels on a 1500 mile journey across this great land today.  Hopefully it will be a good contribution.  Either way, I am glad to be away from the culture that engaged in the widespread intentional foot injury and mutilation practices of foot binding for 1000 years.  They should have just worn heels!

[SF]

That's communism for ya....  What a way to live.....   sf

P.S. I still call it "Red China."  

Edited November 12, 2018 by SF
typo

[Shyheels]

Well, they do like the colour red. Think it’s very lucky....

[HappyinHeels]

They do like red and believe that eight is a very lucky number. Opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics was held on 08 August for that very reason. Have to admit the guy flying over the crowd was the coolest opening ceremony stunt I've ever seen. Probably never to be replicated as far as engineering difficulty. But, the country is still what we all described it. And, yes indeed, it is the elephant in the room the current crop of group thinkers posing as journalists continue to ignore. HappyinHeels

Edited November 13, 2018 by HappyinHeels
missing word

[Shyheels]

I truly despair of journalism these days. I have spent 35 years in this game and the past ten years in particular has been one fast downhill slide...

[HappyinHeels]

I ran across a  journalist named Claire Lehmann who produces an alternative journal called "Quillette" in Australia. She complained about the very sort of group think and lock-step mentality pervading the media in Australia and, by extension, much of the rest of the international media. When enough of the audience is convinced the media is presenting the news with an ideological slant and does so with a condescending tone the media should not then act surprised when that same audience no longer looks to them as credible sources of information. I believe the answer to the problem of journalists becoming tools of group-think and echo chambers of whatever left-leaning party is in power is to fire them as your source of information and become your own journalist. I can think of several things learned in school decades ago which later were disproved. Things like Columbus being celebrated as the first European explorer in the Americas when there is ample evidence the Vikings beat him here by 500 years. Or Thomas Edison inventing electricity when it is now known that Nikola Tesla actually perfected it but he was a poor businessman who allowed others to steal his ideas and get away with it. Believe the former and you anger the Italians. Believe the latter and anger the establishment. I have studied the atmosphere for 48 years as a lifelong hobby and have kept weather records that entire time and have marveled at how many experts sprouted from thin air on climate change. The Earth has warmed exactly 0.9C over 120 years and 65% of that warmth occurred in the first twenty years of the 20th century or far too soon to be attributed to humankind. The focus has only been on the last 30 years which roughly tracks the age of journalists turned sympathetic activists. It's not that there hasn't been some  change just that the change had to be caused by humankind.  Humans are so egocentric most don't even know what cloud types produce precipitation or could name the types of trees growing around them and suddenly I should stand at attention when urbane latte-sucking loft-dwelling do-gooders want to lecture me on the atmosphere? The answers I rely on are in the tree rings and fossil record and by independent research. It is that independent research which renders the typical media outlets obsolete and irrelevant and that really gets under their skin. Use the Guardian or Times of London or the NY Times for things like lining a bird cage or catching oil droppings from underneath your car. I call it a better way to recycle  HappyinHeels

[Shyheels]

I have to agree with you as regards journalism.

Climate as well - the earth's climate varies naturally, both globally and locally, over time. I think there is no question but what we should be better stewards over the environment than we are, and I can well believe that human activity is having an impact on climate but to make this - or any theory or aspect of science - a matter of unflinching dogma is dangerous and stupid. 

One note on the matter of Tesla and Edison, if you plump for Edison over Tesla it's the Serbians you'll be annoying, not the Italians - Tesla was a Serb, but non in what is today Bosnia. If you go to Belgrade, where he's the local hero, you'll find no end of Tesla memorabilia - keychains, fridge magnets, T-shirts, postcards, coffee mugs etc. They have a quirky museum devoted to Tesla and a large statue of him outside the school of engineering. Streets are named for him as is the airport and his likeness appears on currency and stamps.) 

[at9]

57 minutes ago, HappyinHeels said:

Or Thomas Edison inventing electricity when it is now known that Nikola Tesla actually perfected it but he was a poor businessman who allowed others to steal his ideas and get away with it.......

I didn't know electricity had been invented. Rather like Newton invented gravity. The ancient Greeks knew about some electrical phenomena. Their word for amber gave us the word "electricity". In terms of understanding electricity the best known pioneers were Galvani, Volta, Ohm, Ampere, Oersted and perhaps greatest of all, Faraday. All at least half a century before Tesla and Edison. Faraday discovered how to make an electric current flow using magnetism. The principle used in almost all electrical generation to this day.

Edison was one of the pioneers of public electricty supplies. He supplied the whole system, from generators to distribution to lamps. His DC system lost out to the Tesla/Westinghouse AC system for some very good engineering (and economic) reasons.

As for the electric light bulb, there were a number of pioneers before Edison. The best known, in the UK at least, was Joseph Swan. His patent position was so strong that the notoriously litigious Edison decided it wasn't worth fighting. They jointly set up the Ediswan company to make lamps in the UK.

As for climate change, talk about "saving the planet" is a load of rubbish. The planet will get on perfectly well whatever we do to it. Though things might not be very comfortable for us humans. I forget who said that the planet might shake us off, rather like a bad case of fleas. There is a very good case for taking good care of spaceship earth with its incredible and complex life support systems. Never mind any high flown "green" messages. Just out of sheer self interest. Coal mining will die out, not because of green campaigns, but simply on econmic grounds. When it's cheaper to build PV and grid scale storage than to burn coal or gas guess where the smart money will be going. PV and wind are already cost competitive. Grid scale storage will get there pretty soon. It's essential to have it for when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing.

Forgot to say that China is investing in more PV capacity than any other country. Like other countries that industrialised, they've found that smog isn't nice.

Edited November 13, 2018 by at9

[Shyheels]

For an all-rounder though, Tesla - at least during the late 1880s, early 1890s - is kind of hard to beat. He went a bit off beam later but in this prime he was quite the electrical-engineering Renaissance man. 

People forget - or don't realise - that there have been periods in the geologic past where the climate has warmed to levels that far outstrip even the worst case scenarios being spruiked by modern scientists. Not that we shouldn't be concerned - its in our interest to care - but hyperbole accomplices nothing.     

[at9]

Tesla is still a bit of an enigma. I place him as genius and nutcase in equal measure. The greatest thing he handed down to us was the 3 phase AC system. With its efficient motors and generators. The basis of virtually all electricty generation, distribution and usage for over 100 years.

Shyheels correctly says that over geologic time the climate has had some huge extremes. Wouldn't have have been very habitable for us, had we been around at the time.

Edited November 13, 2018 by at9

[Shyheels]

When the meteor struck at Chicxulub 65 million years ago, it hit a limestone seabed and released - in one instant - more than 3500 years' worth of our present CO2 output. A little food for thought.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Shyheels

[HappyinHeels]

Good observations all. The average temperature of Earth today is 15.8C but 65 million years ago at the time of the Chicxulub meteor strike it was a sultry 35C. I wonder if was the dinosaurs' industrial complex that made it so hot??? More recently the temperature during the Middle Ages to the Renaissance was much warmer than it has been in the last 100 years. Interestingly, around the time of the American Revolution, the climate turned sharply colder and was at its most brutal 1773-1785. 

As for electricity it is generally given credit to the person who first perfected the science and then made it available to the masses. Yes, indeed, replacing several outlets a week or more ago may have been more involved if I had been dealing with direct current rather than alternating current. Tesla did, however, electrify the area around Niagara Falls, NY.

One of may favourite stories about how things have to be reported versus how they actually happened involves the 1953 ascent of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Norgay stepped onto the summit first but Hillary stated it would have to be reported that he did owing to racist attitudes at the time. The two men agreed, that upon his death, the truth would be revealed. Then of course there is the question of what happened to Hitler and his wife Eva in April of 1945. You can believe the establishment or you can delve into the archives around San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina or a 1948 CIA photo of Hitler...in Colombia. Printed history is like an iceberg. There is much more than meets the eye. All the more reason to be your own journalist and leave all the emotional copy on the op-ed page where it belongs. Good discussion! HappyinHeels

[Shyheels]

The warmer temperatures roughly 65 million years ago woukd have been caused in part by greenhouse gas emissions from the Deccan Plateau eruptions in what is now India.

Europe’s climate has varied considerably in the past 1000 years - warm enough in the early Middle Ages so that Yorkshire was a major wine producer. This was followed by what was known as the Little Ice Age - and those paintings one sees of ice skating and winter fairs on the Thames - followed by a gradual and consistent warming from the 18th century onwards. 

 

[Aly]

One comment about PV generation: in California a few years ago the enviromentalists were all hot for PV. Then a company put forward a proposal to build a huge array out in the Mojave Desert to generate a lot of electricity. The environmentalists got the project shut down because there are lizards out in the desert and their habitat will be altered if we cover the desert with PV panels. Classic NIMBY...

[Gudulitooo]

On 11/7/2018 at 12:51 PM, Pierre1961 said:

People there seems to be happy with that mixes  messy everyday behavior and a strong " don't use your own brain for wondering about your life"

They try to save the climate by sparing unuseful thinking.

[at9]

3 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

As for electricity it is generally given credit to the person who first perfected the science and then made it available to the masses.

I'm not sure that's a generally valid definition. As a counterexample take television. In the USA the names that come to the fore are usually Jenkins and Farnsworth. In the UK it's Baird who did the world's first witnessed demo of television in January 1925. None of these really brought TV to the masses. That was done by RCA in the US and Marconi-EMI in the UK.

The world's first public electricity supply was in 1881 in Godalming, a small town not far from London: http://www.godalmingmuseum.org.uk/index.php?page=1881-godalming-and-electricity

The same year there was also a trial scheme in in Brighton, on the south coast of England. Neither of these had any famous names or companies involved. Again in 1881 the Savoy Theatre in London was lit by electric light, the first public building to be lit thus. The lamps were supplied by Joseph Swan: https://gsarchive.net/carte/savoy/electric.html

The following year  (1882) Edison set up schemes in both London and New York. There was then rapid expansion in many countries.

[Shyheels]

It’s always tricky claiming “firsts” but fascinating to research them!

[Gudulitooo]

On 11/13/2018 at 5:54 PM, Aly said:

One comment about PV generation: in California a few years ago the enviromentalists were all hot for PV. Then a company put forward a proposal to build a huge array out in the Mojave Desert to generate a lot of electricity. The environmentalists got the project shut down because there are lizards out in the desert and their habitat will be altered if we cover the desert with PV panels. Classic NIMBY... 

And the PV where made by chinese people also ?

[at9]

Surprisingly, according to this source, India has more PV manufacture than China:

https://www.pv-tech.org/news/key-solar-manufacturing-location-trends-in-2016

[blueparrot]

Is this Chinese "points" system run by Experian, Transunion, or Equifax?

[HappyinHeels]

Perspective can change based upon where you are for sure. It is commonly thought the Wright Brothers were the first credited with flight in 1903 in North Carolina. The event was, however, never witnessed. There are those who believe Santos Dumont, a Brazilian, was the first to achieve flight and his event was witnessed the same year. As for television, it may have been first tested in Russia. That's the beauty of this world. So many perspectives creates a lot of conversation. HappyinHeels

[SF]

There also is John Joseph Montgomery and his flight experiments in California.  

Although Montgomery never claimed firsts, his gliding experiments of the 1880s are considered by some historians and organizations to have been the first controlled flights of a heavier-than-air flying machine in America or in the Western Hemisphere, depending on the source.  

[Shyheels]

Alexander Graham Bell was also experimenting with flight during the 1890s